With Cristina Roures as translator; and assistance from Ramon Lamarca

Hammudi Al-Rahmoun Font’s Catalan adaptation of OTHELLO was celebrated in The Guardian as “genuinely far more entertaining, political and provocative than many contemporary productions of Shakespeare in the UK.” The director recalls his first experience facing a cast of actors, the feeling of power in front of the interpreter’s fragility, and the subsequent sadomasochist relationship that can be established between both, as a key factor to conceiving OTHELLO. We spoke to Font about this self-reflective film in essay form, about porosities which link the reality and the fiction. 

Anthony Davis: Your film is probably amongst the most experimental that the Cambridge Film Festival had this year –  certainly amongst the Catalan films. Others have been more adventurous – do you know THE NIGHT ELVIS DIED, a Catalan film ?

Hammudi Al-Rahmoun Font: Yes, I know it, but I didn’t see it.

AJD: The other films were slightly more conventional. Yours was experimental, challenging and ‘disturbing’, as Ramon said [Ramon Lamarca, curator of the Catalan strand at the festival].

HAF: Yeah, for me, even if the film is experimental, it’s very classical. The dramatic structure is more classical.

AJD: Is this your first feature-length film?

HAF: Yes.

AJD: As a director, do you feel yourself more influenced by other film directors or by things from theatre?

HAF: No, by film directors.

AJD: So, you’re really a film person, and theatre’s something else ?

HAF: Si, si, si.

AJD: I only asked, because, of course, Shakespeare…

HAF: Yeah yeah, si, si.

CR: For him, Shakespeare or Othello is an excuse to talk about cinema.

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AJD: Yes. Are there other films that have used plays that have influenced you ? You mentioned DOGVILLE, which is filmed on a stage. You’ve got the rooms and the street laid out in chalk.

HAF: Yeah, si, si.

CR: When he mentions DOGVILLE as a reference, for him the most interesting thing is how the film plays with the codes of cinema: if I set a rule, and I say this line is a wall, the spectator sees a wall. In OTHELLO we do something similar because although we place the cameras, it looks like you are watching a ‘making of’.

AJD: Let’s imagine DOGVILLE as though we’re talking about poetry. You could say ‘That is a wall’, which is a metaphor, or you say ‘It is like a wall’, which is a simile.

HAF: Si – si, si.

CR: It’s all about understanding what they are telling you. Out of character, goes out of the world – and this is a wall. And the second layer, for him, is like a metaphor – why we have a wall.

AJD: In the scene where Ann is so upset, it’s really powerful, and she’s hitting Iago – and he’s just trying to calm her down – he doesn’t care.

CR: He thinks he’s sadistic. To me the character is a guy who does not see the other.

AJD: Although some people say that sadism has to have a sexual element – can we just say he’s cruel, he doesn’t care ?

HAF: Si, si.

AJD: And you’re working on something else now – are you adapting another text ?

HAF: Original. We are quite slow, but I think that it will be a good film.

AJD: Do you ever see yourself going back to Shakespeare?

HAF: Si! I had a teacher who taught us: Cinema is Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky. If you will read Shakespeare and Dostoyevsky, you will know cinema.

AJD: What’s your favourite Dostoyevsky novel ?

HAF: Crime and Punishment, but of course it’s his most famous, but I only read three.

CR: Shakespeare explains very well the primary emotions, and Dostoyevsky human complexity.

AJD: What’s happening with the film being seen outside festivals – is it too early to say?

CR: People that have watched the film, they really like it – it works very well.

AJD: Is it difficult to get them to watch it in the first place ?

CR: Yes, it’s very difficult to attract them, and to come to the cinema to watch the film.

HAF: This is the thing.

CR: The film was released in 2012, based on two years of festivals. It was only released in Spain in cinemas –

HAF: And really only in Catalonia, because there was only one screening in Madrid.

CR: In Barcelona, it was only in one cinema, but for 6 to 8 weeks, based on word of mouth.

AJD: I’ve seen all the people who were queueing up to talk to you afterwards, so we know it’s a matter of getting people to see it.

CR: He says that word of mouth works very well for his film, when he gets people to watch it, they think that it’s very good, but it’s very difficult to get them to the cinema to watch the film.

AJD: And, finally, if there’s one word, maybe a couple of words, that you would like to use to describe what you hope that people will get from your film, what is it ?

CR: For him, the best feedback that he has had about the film is that it is surprising – he doesn’t care that they say ‘You did such a good job with such a small budget’, or ‘You did a great job’, but that it was a surprise.

AJD: Having seen it before, I still found it very powerful.

CR: When he means ‘surprising’, he doesn’t mean the final twist – it’s difficult for people to go and watch this type of film, so when people who are used to seeing mainstream cinema or conventional cinema go and watch this film and like this film—

HAF: This is the surprise. In cinema, too, not only the commercial… I’m very happy when people who like BATMAN say, ‘This is a good film’.

AJD: As I say, I am sure that the Festival, if they can show another of your films, and get people to watch them, they’d be happy to do so. And I wish you every success with more people seeing the film and saying ‘Hey, I liked that’. Thanks very much.

HAF: Thank you.

Anthony Davis writes extensively about Catalan cinema and Font’s work on his film blog.

OTEL·LO trailer (english subtitles) from Hammudi Al-Rahmoun Font on Vimeo.